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The Terrible Twos Times Two
10 Secrets to Surviving the Second Year With Twins
By Elizabeth Lyons
While it may sound ridiculous at times, the effect of slowly counting to 10 is highly underestimated. Learn to do it in various languages to create learning and calming environments simultaneously!
There will likely be many occasions when your first instinct is to yell when something inconvenient occurs. This is perfectly understandable. After all, when the entire contents of a tube of toothpaste have somehow ended up all over the floor, it can be frustrating. Do your best to determine which incidents are indeed accidents – and, quite possibly, the result of your child simply trying to learn and be independent – and which are behaviors that your child knows are wrong. When the latter occurs, have a plan for a time-out or a natural or logical consequence for your child. Most importantly, be calm and consistent with your response. Sometimes, the entire point of the wrongdoing was to get you in the uproar that your child knows she can get you into. Don't allow yourself to lose this battle to a 2-year-old!
And by all means, please don't rinse and reuse paper towels in an effort to conserve money or anything else. I've made my penchant for bargain shopping quite clear, but even I draw the line on this one. Our family goes through approximately one roll of paper towels every two days or so, and that's just fine with me. I simply don't have the time to be doing multiple loads of laundry each day to wash the again-dirty (and pretty) dishtowels.